Mechanical watches, one inch across and made to last for half a century or more, are inherently sustainable. But the luxury industry, with its first class flights and lavish events for partners and press, is not. This apparent tension is causing brands to publicise the most environmentally-friendly aspects of their business while refusing to talk about their worst practices, as Robin Swithinbank discovered when none of Watches & Wonders watchmakers would appear on stage with him at the event to debate the industry’s response to climate change and protecting the environment.
Any time someone points a television camera in my direction and invites me to speak, nerves always come. But on one recent occasion, the prevailing feeling was something closer to awkwardness.
I’d been invited to join a panel on ‘transparency’, specifically to discuss how transparent the watch industry is in matters of sustainability, and somehow, of the four panelists, the one with the closest relationship to the watch industry was me. A pen-for-hire, who has written a few bits on the subject.
The organisers had tried, they assured me, to convince a number of watch group and brand reps to step up. An industry insider, someone to be the voice of watchmaking’s much vaunted sustainability drive, should not have been hard to find.
The panel took place on day two of Watches and Wonders, and yet it was left to Dior Parfum’s head of sustainability to be – via video call – the lone brand voice. Good on her, no doubt, but she could shed no light on the watch industry’s position on sustainability. Not that she should have been expected to.
Where was the watch industry?
I’m sure I shouldn’t have been surprised the industry no-platformed itself, but I‘d had hope, and not just because of where we were. I’ve lost count of the number of brands who have told me they’re trying to be more sustainable – and more transparent. As well as knowing that being ‘good’ is good for business, smart chief execs have clocked that to tap into a market demanding openness and that nebulous concept ‘authenticity’, they need to come clean about anything and everything they’re doing.
Hublot supports Polar Pod expedition to study Antarctica’s Southern Ocean
Sure, there are pitfalls here. Deep ones. But even if accusations of greenwashing will always fly, I have some sympathy with the view that in this social age, if you’re bluffing, you’ll get found out – and rinsed.
And in any case, what’s the better alternative? Keeping shtum? That’s increasingly perilous. Because if you’re not talking about acting sustainably, what are you trying to hide? Being both Swiss and luxury, watch brands aren’t inclined to open up, but with each passing year – and each passing panel – the question grows louder.
Pumped up after the panel, I put the question to Cyrille Vigneron, Cartier’s chief exec when I found myself on his stand only a few minutes later. Cartier, as he explained in a highly impressive 20-minute monologue, is hot on sustainability.
Even while we were talking, a press release went out announcing Chanel, Montblanc and Swarovski were among the new members joining the Watch & Jewellery Initiative 2030 Cartier founded in partnership with Kering last year to foster sustainability across the two sectors.
As gladdening as this is, it was still background noise. And the time for whispering in the wings is over.
Isn’t it? Some may feel a story about brands collaborating to drive an industry towards the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals is too inside baseball for the average Tank buyer, but that’s an outmoded line.
There are countless studies out there showing that consumers want products with a responsible, sustainable, inclusive story behind them (even while these bland corporate terms are in themselves off-putting), whether they’re buying food, clothes, cars – or watches.
What’s not entirely clear yet is whether the problem is that the watch industry isn’t acting, or that it’s not talking. Let’s assume it’s the latter. If brands are chasing sustainability, they should have been falling over themselves to fill the empty seat next to me on that panel. Why weren’t they?
I don’t know. But I do know the industry is neurotically cautious, conservative and set in its ways. Shouting from the roof tops about your good deeds isn’t the Swiss way. That’s admirable to a point, but, as the gospel writer Luke and Spider-Man know, with great power comes great responsibility.
The watch industry has extraordinary power. Its top names are household names. Its products are universally desirable. Its profits are awesome. And where it leads, others follow. The trickle-down effect, familiar to anyone who understands how technology developed in Formula 1 eventually ends up in their family runabout, dictates that luxury sets an example. And so, like it or not, there’s a moral case to answer here.
The industry needs shaking up. Brands trotting out the line that a watch is sustainable because it’s designed to last a lifetime – and there are plenty – need to know that no longer washes, for all there’s sense in it. Change starts at home, and of course every one of us has a responsibility here, but we’re more likely to act if we’re swept up in momentum generated by forces bigger than us. An industry turning over billions of dollars with sky-high levels of global awareness qualifies.
There’s more to it. The onus on watchmakers grows because luxury is also positive. In the main, buying, giving, receiving and owning luxury generates long-lasting positive associations. There’s enormous potential in tagging a luxury watch to sustainability because of the trickle-down effect. Sustainability – sometimes dry, sometimes easily parodied – can be positive. It can be luxurious. Heck, sustainability can be sexy. And sexy sells.
It’s not that everyone’s sitting on their hands. IWC is at least a decade into its sustainability story, now followed by Panerai, Breitling, Ulysse Nardin, Mondaine and others besides… At Watches and Wonders Oris published its first sustainability report having become climate neutral last year. And like Cartier, superbrands Rolex and Omega have plenty going on, too. Stuff is happening.
All the same, while some remain silent, a sustainability fault line opens up across the industry. On one side, those affecting a seismic shift towards sustainability, making changes and preaching the message with end-of-the-world zeal; on the other, those watching their relevance recede while their lips remain sealed. Only one will fall into the crack.
On air, one of my fellow panelists assured me there are plenty of brands working hard behind the scenes to become more sustainable, and proposed we meet again in a year to pick up the thread.
I’m there. Watch brands – join me?
Good article! This topic, as you rightly say, should become a central part of the watchmaking discussion, and manufacturers at all levels in the industry should embrace it – and be seen to be embracing it. Long-term, sustainable production isn’t optional – it’s essential for the survival and health of the industry. Manufacturers have a lot to gain by publicly incorporating it as part of their offer.